I might have to say college now too….it's becoming a joke. So many young people who can't get jobs with their business/liberal arts degrees complaining……why? because they are not really qualified to do much. Great system those universities got going there. Go back to trade schools, specialize in something….really think about what you are majoring in and what the job outcome can be.

Kids play outside in my neighborhood until dark all the time. I believe there were just as many nutjobs when we were kids, but now it's just out there more with the Internets, child predator registries, etc., etc.

I walked all over town when I was a kid, but my parents' house is literally in the center of town, near the schools and downtown. I live on the other side of the tracks near all of the farms. Blueberry fields are literally my back yard. So, I don't think my son will be hoofin it all over the place unless he's hanging at Mommom's.

My parents were really lax with their rules, at least with me, the goody two-shoes straight-A middle child. They let me go to South Street on the train by the time I was a freshman. I never had a curfew, and the coolest thing about my parents was that they let us listen to any music we liked, read any book we wanted to and watch any movie we wanted. They were also pretty chill about the Internets. AOL chatrooms, anyone? LMAO.

They also let us have a glass of wine or a beer on special occasions in high school.

We used to play near a river. Our parents encouraged us to go outside and explore. We had a tree fort and would spend all day there. I think our parents felt that there was safety in numbers and that we lived in a rural town so no one would snatch us up. I think everyone was to broke to pay a baby sitter honestly. Our town did not have cable back then. There was Atari, but no video games like there is now. A different time.

Being an only child gave me the freedom to do things most kids did not. For instance, my driver to school let me go in late a few days a week so I could level up on my gameboy. The joys of adolescence.

When I was between the ages of 10 and 13, my mom used to put me on a Greyhound from Buffalo to Cincinnati to see my dad. The Cleveland bus station layover was frightening, to say the least.

But really, this place has to be safer than when we were kids, we just didn't have Nancy Grace back then. It's not like pedos just got invented either. Our country is a police state, surveillance cameras all over, yet we talk about how safe it used to be. Ok.

Read Enid Blyyon books and eat KFC and McDs. Only joking, of course I let them read Enid Blyton – what self respecting parent wouldn't let their child read all about white middle class children and golliwogs?

I let my kids play outside until dark, but I keep a close eye on them and let them know to never get close to a stranger and to scream and run inside if anyone comes near them. Might seem silly but a 10 year old girl from Springfield, MO was abducted right in front of her neighbor's house yesterday and they found her body. Thank God they've arrested the man who did it already. Sick, sad world we live in when kids can't just be kids.

@califblondy+1A bunch of us would climb in the back of the beat up red pick up and my aunt would tear down the highway (south Carolina). In hindsight it was sooooo dangerous. At 10 we had no concept of how dangerous it was. SMH. I would never let my kids. I think they outlawed that.

Shit.Me & my high school bff used to call chat lines in the late 90s & have random dudes bring us beer.One random decided to jack off in front of like 5 of us.I have so many disturbing memories of high school.

We lived in an isolated neighborhood growing up. In order to go up town we literally had to "cross the tracks" — freight trains would be parked there and really there was no crossing. We used to cross by going under moving trains… no, the trains were not going very fast. But still, it gives me the heebie jeebies just thinking about it. I was around 8 – 10 years old.

I grew up in Seattle. My girlfriend and I at age 8 would walk to Green lake every day in summer alone, spend the day at the lake. We ate breakfast, went out to play, ate lunch, went out to play until dark.

We also went to Woodland Park Zoo and would spend the entire day exploring. We were never bothered by anybody.

Every summer from 7th grade through my Junior year, I rode the Greyhound bus from Seattle to Sweet Home Oregon alone,to stay with my grandparents and pick beans to earn money for school clothes.

I grew up in a rural area and now I live in suburban Chicago. Pretty much everything I did as a kid will be a no-no. Hell, I don't even feel safe taking a walk by myself in my neighborhood. If Mr. Lucy can't go with me I have to have a cell phone and pepper spray.

Our first little one is on the way. I don't think I'm going to be able to raise him or her here.

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